The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-24
A Man Whose Electric Fingers Cause
Him Great Trouble.

From the Philadelphia Ne,ss
Anton Saverne, a Belgian cabinetmaker
employed at Kensington shipyard, has the
wonderful power of producing electric
sparks by rubbing his fingers Saverne is a
little, swarthy fellow about 40 years old
with bushy head of black hair, keen blue
eyes-ver'- rare among his countrymen-
and very small hands, His motions prove
that he is excessively nervous, and his
senses of hearing, sight and smell, as he as
sured reporter yesterday, are unusually
acute. His parents still live on farm in
Belgium, near Brussels, and he is the young
est of a family of eleven children.
81 know not how do it, he said last eve
ming, as the reporter saw sparks shoot from
Saverne's fingers. The cabinetmaker
rubbed his finger tips rapidly up and down
upon his trousers. Then, holding his hands
out with fingers widely extended. Jets of
tiny yellow flames, or long sparks, shot
out. They seemed propelled by some I'M
seen force ten or twelve inches into the air,
when they vanished The right hand APP
peared more charged with electricity, if the
sparks are electric, than the left. The lamp
i'll Saverne'S front room was put out so that
the sparks might be seen in all their bril-
liancy. 1t was wonderful sight Again
and again did the bushy headed Belgian rub
his fingers and hold them out while tiny
showers of bright sparks darted out as if
from toy fireworks.
Il was not always so,n said Saverne,
lighting the lamp and his black pipe filed
with villanous tobacco, at the same time
when | had been sick ten years ago it was
said | would die. | lay so weak one night
i'll my fathers house when there came up a
storm. Such thunder and lightnin g never
knew before. And my body had such queer
sensations. While / lay, covered up with
bedclothes, my mother sat holding her face
III her hands by my side, and | seemed to
feel thousand needles pricking my limbs
and chest and the soles of my feet. 1t was
not so painful, for queer thrills came with
every prick, and when the thunder rolled
away and the rain stopped | rose up, leaned
back and put out my hand to take that of
my mothers. My eyes were closed, but l
heard her cry:
"'Antonr
WHAT gasped, weakly.
"'Your hand
VI looked at it. The one nearest 10 her
It was all afiame. | was terrified. NY cry
brought my father and sisters to the room
They looked at me in horror. | took my
other hand from the clothes to rub the
right. Sparks shot from the fingers of the
left Soon they died away, but have but
to rub my hands as you have seen and the
light comes. p"
Saverne told of the hardships brought
upon him by his singular faculty. The
neighboring peasants in Belgium avoided
him and told awful stories of his being in
league with the devil. Men would not hire
him to pillow or i'll harvest time. His own
family chung to him, but the farm was
small and he came to this country five years
ago. Here he learned the Misunderstanding
trade and got employment at finishing ship
interiors But when his companions sa W
his faculty or infirmity they treated him
coldly. His ignorant neighbors in Schles-
wig street regard him as possessed of an
evil spirit. Saverne's electric fling ers are
the curse of his existence